Adjustable width and length sanitary napkin and panty liner

ABSTRACT

A single adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner includes both folding panels and tear-away panels to adjust the width and/or the length to a particular woman or outfit. The panels may be folded and/or torn away to adjust the shape and the size of the sanitary napkin or panty liner. Adhesive strips may be provided to retain folded panels. Thus a single sanitary napkin or panty liner fits the needs of a variety of women and outfits.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Provisional application No.60/813,832 filed on Jun. 14, 2006

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to women's hygiene and in particular to asanitary napkin and/or to a panty liner which may be adjusted in widthand/or length.

Women may have different anatomical proportions and wear variousclothing which fits differently. As a result, no single sanitary napkinor panty liner is a good fit to all women, or a good fit to a womanwearing a variety of clothing. Some sanitary napkins and/or panty linersmay be adjusted in length and some may be adjusted in width, but knownsanitary napkins and panty liners fail to allow adjustment in bothlength and width. As a result, it is often difficult to obtain a goodfit.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention addresses the above and other needs by providing asingle adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner includes both foldingpanels and tear-away panels to adjust the width and/or the length to aparticular woman or outfit. The panels may be folded and/or torn away toadjust the shape and the size of the sanitary napkin or panty liner.Adhesive strips may be provided to retain folded panels. Thus a singlesanitary napkin or panty liner fits the needs of a variety of women,sizes, proportions, or outfit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be more apparent from the following more particulardescription thereof, presented in conjunction with the followingdrawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top view of an adjustable sanitary napkin or panty lineraccording to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the adjustable sanitary napkin orpanty liner taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the adjustable sanitary napkin orpanty liner taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 1

FIG. 4 shows adhesive strips attached panels of the adjustable sanitarynapkin or panty liner.

FIG. 5 shows the adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner with outsidepanels folded or torn away.

FIG. 6A is a cross-sectional view of the adjustable sanitary napkin orpanty liner with outside panels torn away, taken along line 6-6 of FIG.5.

FIG. 6B is a cross-sectional view of the adjustable sanitary napkin orpanty liner with outside panels folded, taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 shows the adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner with insidepanels folded or torn away.

FIG. 8A is a cross-sectional view of the adjustable sanitary napkin orpanty liner with inside panels torn away, taken along line 8-8 of FIG.7.

FIG. 8B is a cross-sectional view of the adjustable sanitary napkin orpanty liner with inside panels folded, taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is the adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner with outsidepanels and top and bottom panels folded or torn away.

FIG. 10 is the adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner with insidepanels and the top panels folded or torn away.

FIG. 11 is the adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner with outsidepanels and the top panels folded or torn away.

FIG. 12 is the adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner with insidepanels, outside panels, and the top panels folded or torn away.

FIG. 13 is a round embodiment of the adjustable sanitary napkin or pantyliner according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following description is of the best mode presently contemplated forcarrying out the invention. This description is not to be taken in alimiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of describing one ormore preferred embodiments of the invention. The scope of the inventionshould be determined with reference to the claims.

An adjustable sanitary napkin, panty liner, or incontinence pad 10 (orhygienic pad) according to the present-invention is shown in FIG. 1, across-sectional view of the adjustable sanitary napkin, panty liner, orincontinence pad. 10 taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. 2,and a cross-sectional view of the adjustable sanitary napkin, pantyliner, or incontinence pad 10 taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 1 is shown inFIG. 3. The adjustable napkin, liner, or pad 10 comprises a diamondshape with flattened outside points to form flats 11. The adjustablesanitary napkin, panty liner, or incontinence pad 10 includes severalabsorbent panels. The panels comprise a center rectangular panel 12, aleft inside panel 14 a, a right inside panel 14 b, a left outside panel16 a, a right outside panel 16 b, a top panel 18 a, and a bottom panel18 b. While the top and bottom panels 18 a and 18 b are show pointed,they may also include flats 11 shown on outside panels 16 a and 16 b. Abonded edge 20 extends around the perimeter of the napkin, liner, or pad10.

Seams are provided between the panels to facilitate folding or tearingto remove-panels. A left inside seam 22 a resides between the centerpanel 12 and the left inside panel 14 a, and a right inside seam 22 bresides between the center panel 12 and the right inside panel 14 b. Aleft outside seam 24 a resides between the left inside panel 14 a andthe left outside panel 16 a, and a right outside seam 24 b residesbetween the right inside panel 14 b and the right outside panel 16 b. Atop seam 26 a resides between the top panel 18 a and the center panel12, and a bottom seam 26 b resides between the bottom panel 14 b and thecenter panel 12. The panels 14 a, 14 b, 16 a, 16 b, 18 a, and 18 b maybe folded or torn away along the seams to adjust the shape of theadjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner as shown subsequent figures.The panels 14 a, 14 b, 16 a, 16 b, 18 a, and 18 b may be made from knownabsorbent material used for sanitary napkin, panty liner or incontinencepad, or may be any other suitable material.

The folding and tear away panels 14 a, 14 b, 16 a, 16 b, 18 a, and 18 bthus provide an adjustable sanitary napkin, panty liner or incontinencepad. The resulting napkin, liner, or pad 10 is multifunctional, becauseit adjusts in both length and width into different geometrical shapes,providing a single pad for a variety of uses. The napkin, liner, or pad10 is comprised of a diamond shape with flattened outside points to formflats and has a rectangular center area with straight or curve seams.The napkin, liner, or pad 10 may be folded in different ways to adjustin length and width into seven or more shapes, from rectangular, to fulldiamond (or square using the four corners), half diamond or circle. Thecombined width of the panel 16 a added to the panel. 14 a, or the panel16 b added to the panel 14 b, is preferably less than the width of therectangular area 12, there by facilitating folding the panels under thecenter rectangle. The inside panels 14 a and 14 b when folded, shouldpreferably be narrower than half the width of the rectangular area 12.Top and bottom panels 18 a and 18 b, when folded, should be at least ¼to ½ the length of the rectangular area 12. The napkin, liner, or pad 10total length is approximately the addition of the rectangular area 12length and the length of the top and the bottom panels 18 a and 18 b.The center rectangular panel 12 has a width of at least approximately1.5 inches to 2.0 inches and a length of at least approximately 4inches.

Adhesive strips may be attached to the panels of the adjustable napkin,liner, or pad 10 as shown in FIG. 4 to facilitate retaining foldedpanels. An adhesive strip 30 may be attached to the panel 12, anadhesive strip 32 a may be attached to the panel 14 a, an adhesive strip32 b may be attached to the panel 14 b, an adhesive strip 34 a may beattached to the panel 16 a, and an adhesive strip 34 b may be attachedto the panel 16 b. The adhesive strips may be adhered to either thenapkin, liner, or pad 10 or to clothing (for example, panties) worn bythe user. All the adhesive strips 34 a, 34 b, 32 a, 32 b, and 30 may bewider, thinner or a combination there of, and strip 30 may also be widerenough to have adhesive on the entire panel 12.

The adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner 10 with outside panels 16a and 16 b folded or torn away is shown in FIG. 5, a cross-sectionalview of the adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner with outsidepanels 16 a and 16 b torn away, taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 5 is shownin FIG. 6A, and a cross-sectional view of the adjustable sanitary napkinor panty liner with outside panels folded, taken along line 6-6 of FIG.5 is shown in FIG. 6B. The panels 14 a and 14 b provide wider coveragethen the center 12 alone, allowing for the retention of more fluids. Theoverall length of the napkin, liner, or pad 10 is the addition of thelength of center 12 and the length of the top and the bottom panels 18 aand 18 b.

The adjustable napkin, liner, or pad 10 is shown in FIG. 7 with insidepanels 14 a and 14 b folded or torn away, providing a narrow napkin,liner, or pad 10. A cross-sectional view of the adjustable sanitarynapkin or panty liner 10 with inside panels 14 a and 14 b torn away,taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 7 is shown in FIG. 8A, and across-sectional view of the adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner 10with inside panels 14 a and 14 b folded, taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 7is shown in FIG. 8B. The panels 18 a and 18 b may be folded intoclothing (for example, panties) also. The length of the panels 18 a and18 b, when folded, should be at least ¼ to ½ longer than the length ofthe center 12.

The adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner 10 with outside panels 16a and 16 b and top and bottom panels 18 a and 18 b folded or torn away,is shown in FIG. 9. The adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner 10with inside panels 14 a and 14 b and the top panel 18 a folded or tornaway is shown in FIG. 10. The adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner10 with outside panels 16 a, and 16 b and the top panel 18 a folded fortorn away is shown in FIG. 11. The adjustable sanitary napkin or pantyliner 10 with the inside panels 14 a and 14 b, the outside panels 16 a,and 16 b and the top panel 18 a folded for torn away is shown in FIG.12. Thus, any combination of panels may be folded or torn away to adjustthe size of the adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner 10 for aparticular woman or outfit. In each instance, by folding or tearing awayspecific panels, the adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner 10 may beconfigured to fit a woman's anatomy or clothing, and provide the bestcoverage and absorption available.

A round embodiment of the adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner 40according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 13. The adjustablesanitary napkin or panty liner 40 may be adjusted as described above forthe adjustable sanitary napkin or panty liner 10. The adjustablesanitary napkin or panty liner according to the present invention mayfurther be wider or longer than the adjustable sanitary napkin or pantyliner 10, and may be oval or elliptical. Any adjustable sanitary napkinor panty liner having panels joined by seams allowing folding fortearing is intended to come within the scope of the present invention,regardless changes of shape, or of absorbent material.

The sanitary napkin or panty liner 10 is used by folding or tearing awayseparately, the top or bottom panel 18 a or 18 b, and/or the outsidepanels 16 a or 16 b, and/or the inside panels 14 a or 14 b. The sanitarynapkin or panty liner 10 is thus adjustable in length and width intodifferent shapes and sizes. The panels 14 a, 14 b, 16 a, 16 b, 18 a, and18 b may be torn or folded along seams.

While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means ofspecific embodiments and applications thereof, numerous modificationsand variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention set forth in the claims.

1. A woman's adjustable hygienic pad comprising: absorbent panels; andseams between the panels, wherein the panels may be folded along theseams and the panels may be torn away along the seams.
 2. The adjustablehygienic pad of claim 1, further including an adhesive strip on one sideof at least one panel for holding the panel in a folded position.
 3. Theadjustable hygienic pad of claim 1, comprising a diamond shapedadjustable sanitary napkin.
 4. The adjustable hygienic pad of claim 1,wherein the panels include a rectangular center panels.
 5. A woman'sadjustable hygienic pad comprising: a center absorbent panel; at leastone of top and bottom absorbent panels connected to the center absorbentpanel; at least one of right and left absorbent panels connected to thecenter absorbent panel; and seams between the panels, wherein the panelsmay be folded along the seams and the panels may be torn away along theseams.
 6. The adjustable hygienic pad of claim 5, wherein the pad isabsorbent and adjustable and functions as either sanitary napkin and apanty liner as the adjustments in both length and width providedifferent geometrical shapes to function as either.
 7. The adjustablehygienic pad of claim 5, wherein the pad is adjustable in shape and sizeto increase or decrease coverage area.
 8. The adjustable hygienic pad ofclaim 5, wherein the pad is adjustable in shape and size to retain moreor less fluids.
 9. The adjustable hygienic pad of claim 5, wherein thepad is adjustable in shape and size according to personal need(preference).
 10. A method for adjusting the shape of a hygienic pad,the method comprising: at least one of folding or tearing along seams toadjust the size and shape of the pad.